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Cupar and District’s finest young swimmers took to the water on Sunday, competing in the Geordie Wotherspoon, which brings together all of the novice league swimmers from earlier in the year. A total of six individual medals were won and fourteen lifetime best swims produced by a team of excited and focussed kids.

Coaches Callum Ellis Morton, Jane Staal and I organised the swimmers for the warm up and races and were treated to some magnificent performances. Jessica MacLeod, soon to start training with Fins in Kirkcaldy, started off the day with a good race in the backstroke, narrowly missing out on a PB. Next up was Kate Dalglish who started strongly and worked her socks off to hold onto second place throughout the race, securing a silver medal for her efforts. Kiera Lorimer, quickly becoming a gala regular, also swam really well and taking over five-seconds off her previous PB. Theo Ellis Morton had watched the girls racing and he too produced a thrilling neck and neck race to just be touched out at the wall but picked up a well-deserved silver medal and a fabulous new PB.

Sophie and Marcel were up next in the 25m Butterfly. Marcel put in a spirited swim making the best improvement of the day by taking over eight seconds off his previous time. Sophie swam very confidently and won her heat by several meters leading to a massive smile and a gold medal too. Hannah Staal and Owen Anderson were both really looking forward to their Freestyle races and they delivered excellent swims setting lifetime bests with Hannah ducking under 20 seconds for the first time.

The older swimmers then took over racing, competing over 50m. Danielle and Amy were first in the water for the backstroke with both setting new PB’s and in a very competitive and thrilling race, Amy picked up the bronze medal having worked her way up from fifth at the turn. Jock then followed, new goggles on, swimming a good race but caught the lane rope with his elbow near the finish which slowed him down, otherwise a PB was very much on the cards. Rowan and Torin then marshalled for the breaststroke with Rowan up first. Looking nervous at the start, she started quickly from the blocks and came up in the lead, a position she held throughout the entire race, finishing well at the wall to secure a gold medal. Torin who has made real improvement in his breaststroke recently swam well in an exciting heat and took almost six-seconds off his previous best.

50m Fly had Grace and Oliver determined to swim well. Grace maintained a regular stroke throughout her heat and was rewarded with a lifetime best swim. Oliver then raced in the most keenly contested race of the day, finishing in third place and winning a bronze medal and setting a PB too. The top three were all within 0.20 seconds of one another!! The last individual events were the 50m Freestyle races where Isla and Inver competed for points. Isla had a confident and only just missed setting a new PB. Inver, always determined to swim at his best, raced in the first heat and put in a stirring race setting a lifetime best swim taking two-seconds off.

The morning finished, as per usual, with the age-group medley relays. First up were our nine and under girls all of whom had raced brilliantly in the heats. The question was, how would they get on as a team? Well, that was answered quickly by an emphatic win with a gap of over six-seconds before the next team finished. Gold medals to all four girls and more delighted smiles. The 10-12yr old girls finished in fourth place with all four pushing themselves really hard. The final race saw our older boys in the water. They too gave 100% and were deserved winners of the bronze medal position.

Medals were handed out by local girl Kathryn Johnstone, Scottish Commonwealth Games Team member and breaststroke finalist in the games.

Oliver Goad and Cameron McMaster were jointly recognised for their huge improvement during the novice gala season earlier this year when they were awarded with the ‘Most improved boy in Fife’ trophy. The trophy is going to live in each of their houses for six-months. Last season we picked up the most improved girl award too, so our coaches are doing great things with our younger swimmers. My thanks to all those who helped to judge and timekeep in support of our swimmers and the club.

Mark Laing, Head Coach, Cupar and District Swimming Club
16th September 2014